Birdwatching

Birdwatching is much more fun to do in a pet store, at least according to Rachel. There's a bird feeder out in the yard of our complex and it attracts some cute little birds. Today was lovely out so Rachel and I went outside to watch them but she wasn't too interested. The birds, of course, would fly away if we got too close so it ended up being a zoo experience.

"Look way over there, Rachel, there's a bird!"

"Uhhh...where mom? What are you talking abo-ooh, grass!"

In order to get her to eat as little grass as possible I gave her my keys to suck on and bribed her with vegetables for dinner. It seemed to work--she gave up on trying to pull up fist fulls of grass--and they even helped her to notice the birds a little. She would shake the keys and they'd all start chirping out their warnings to each other (about the dangerous baby on the lawn shaking keys, aka Rachel) before flying off and she would turn and stare at them and yell whatever it was she was yelling at them.

Rachel noticing the birds

Then they'd all be gone and she'd turn her attention back to the keys. Satisfied that the baby on the lawn was safe now that she was no longer rattling keys at them, the birds would come back to the tree one by one...and then Rachel would shake the keys again and the birds would squawk and Rachel would stare and yell and the whole system would repeat itself again.

I think she had a good time. I don't know if she saw too many birds, but I wasn't able to tell her what they were, anyway. We classified them by color.

"Look, there's one with a red head," or "There's one with yellow wings," or "There's a little black one."


If I happened to be my Grandma Conrad I would know what they were, but I'm not my Grandma and I don't know what they were. If I had to guess I would say that they were finches.

As I said, I think Rachel had a good time, but I think she enjoys the pet store birds better. They are in cages so they can't fly away from her and they make a lot of noise and are a little more colorful. Oh, well. One day she'll notice things from a distance, I'm sure.


In other news, we found out that Rachel can stand up by herself for about thirty seconds--she didn't mind standing up barefoot either in the grass or on the cement. And the weather is so nice that I am airing out the house. I love spring!